Less is More

The other day in my class about Jesus Christ, our teacher slipped on her words and accidently said that Christ lived a sinful life instead of a sinless life.She was pretty embarrassed and pointed to Satan and said he was the sinful one and Christ was sinless; then went back and forth saying full (pointing to Satan), less (pointing to Jesus). It was pretty amusing at the time, but I have been thinking about it a lot since then.

What has struck me is that Jesus made himself less. He chose to be less so that he could be more. Satan chose to be more and ended up becoming less. Satan is indeed full- full of pride, full of sin, full of hate, full of envy and malice. All of this fullness leaves Satan in emptiness.

Christ on the other hand, has become everything by choosing to be less- sinless, selfless, and tireless in his service to others, devotion to the Father, and willingness to sacrifice all that is required. By being less of the world, he became more of the Father. My favorite thing about Christ though is not only that he was humble and selfless, but that he taught that life was about the least of things. He taught about serving the least, becoming as a child, and keeping even the least of the commandments.

In my life I feel like I’m always trying to be more. I try to learn more, be more spiritual, make more friends, be better, and simply do more. It’s all good things. I want to be more for good reasons. But after that experience in class, I realized that for me personally, I need to focus on being less.

As I strive to be more, I am only thinking of me. I’m thinking of how to make myself better and constantly focusing on improving. However, if I can focus on being less, the emphasis will not be on me. In becoming less, I can focus on helping others become more. I’ll be able to really put God first because it won’t be about me.

I’m not saying that this is something everyone should do, but for me personally, I need to become less before I can truly be more.